The sonic treatment of sheet material immersed in a treating liquid for its cleaning, pickling, phosphating, or the like, is known; however, usually the sonic vibrations have been directed against and relatively close to the large flat surfaces of the sheet material, such as disclosed in the following U.S. patents:
______________________________________ Name No. Date Class ______________________________________ Engelhardt 2,894,860 July 14, 1959 134/1 Osterman, Jr. 3,066,084 November 17, 1962 134/1 et al Tardoskegyi 3,123,084 March 3, 1964 134/1 Sasaki 3,240,963 March 15, 1966 134/1 ______________________________________
Thus, when larger sheets were to be treated, more sonic vibrators were used to cover their larger surface.
Nevertheless, FIGS. 7 and 8 of Massa U.S. Pat. No. 2,702,260 issued Feb. 15, 1955 and found in U.S. Class 134 subclass 1 does show sonic vibrators along the edges of a shallow tank for treating a continuous web, but no means for supporting and directing the web or even treating separate successive sheets are shown.
If the material to be sonically and liquid-treated is not a web, but separate pieces, the pieces are usually suspended in a tank and/or given a batch-type of treatment, the tanks for which are relatively deep and thus require a large volume of treating liquid, such as shown in the following U.S. patents:
______________________________________ Name No. Date Class ______________________________________ Hightower et al 3,033,710 May 8, 1962 134/1 Mobius et al 3,449,163 June 10, 1969 134/1 Jacke et al 2,950,725 August 30, 1960 134/1 Brech 3,596,883 August 3, 1971 134/184 ______________________________________
Since it has been considered more effective to place the sonic vibrators as close to the material being treated as possible, the vibrators often have been placed in the treating liquid in the tanks, including their necessary electrical connections, all of which requires expensive protective shielding. Although vibrators have been placed outside of tanks, they are usually placed in false bottoms in the tanks as disclosed in the above mentioned Tardoskegyi and Jacke et al patents, or the vibrators have been placed on the bottoms of the tanks as disclosed in the following U.S. patents:
______________________________________ Name No. Date Class ______________________________________ Camp 3,058,014 October 9, 1962 310/8.7 Cook 3,371,233 February 27, 1968 310/8.1 Brech 3,596,883 August 3, 1971 134/184 Morita 3,730,489 May 1, 1973 134/184 ______________________________________
The use of conveyors which move through reactive liquids in treating tanks is also known, even in ultrasonic cleaning liquid tanks as shown in Branson U.S. Pat. No. 3,222,221 issued Dec. 7, 1965 found in Class 134 subclass 1, but the conveyors do not pass through the sonically vibrated liquid. Also a conveyor resistant to treating liquid is shown in Millard U.S. Pat. No. 1,656,528 issued Jan. 17, 1928 found in Class 134 subclass 124, but such a conveyor is not for or used in combination with sonic treating.
Several of the above mentioned patents, such as Engelhardt U.S. Pat. No. 2,894,860 issued July 14, 1959; Osterman, Jr. et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,066,084 issued Nov. 17, 1962 and Sasaki U.S. Pat. No. 3,240,963 issued Mar. 15, 1966 disclose the sonic treating of a web of sheet material from a coil, but no reference of record was found in which either sheets or webs from coils were supported during and in sonically vibrated liquids.